On March 31, the leader of the French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally, RN), Marine Le Pen, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to four years in prison with two suspended and the other two in the form of house arrest. She is also now ineligible to run for office for the next five years, keeping her out of the campaign in France’s upcoming 2027 presidential elections, pending any potential appeal.
The decision has sparked international outrage from the far right, with many callously attacking the judiciary system in the European Union (EU) as politically motivated and therefore illegitimate. This sentiment is shared widely by leaders of prominent political parties and hate movements transnationally, including in Europe and the United States, which is currently experiencing its own attacks against the judicial system.
In the United States, President Trump said the conviction was “a very big deal” and “sounds very much like this country,” apparently referencing his own 34 felony convictions. Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claimed that “When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents. This is their standard playbook throughout the world.”
Elon Musk, responding to Le Pen’s conviction, claims that the “radical left” has a “standard playbook” for “abus[ing] the legal system to jail their opponents” (Source: Twitter)
In a statement following her sentencing, Le Pen chastized the French judiciary for making a supposedly “political decision” led by judges “employing practices that some thought were reserved for authoritarian regimes.” Similarly, RN’s President, Jordan Bardella, said that Le Pen was “unjustly condemned,” the decision represented “French Democracy…being executed,” and called for a “popular and peaceful mobilization” against the judiciary.
Marion Maréchal Le Pen, former member of RN and niece of Marine Le Pen, attacked the judiciary’s independence and claimed the ruling was politically-motivated by saying “Judges, thinking themselves above the sovereign people, have decided to execute in a court of law the woman they were never able to force back at the ballot box.” Another former RN candidate, Damien Rieu, who is also associated with Eric Zemmour’s far-right party Reconquête! (Reconquest!) and co-founded the racist European far-right movement Generation Identity, compared Le Pen and her conviction to the case of Alexei Navalny, a vocal opponent to Vladimir Putin who died in captivity at a Siberian penal colony.
President of Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella, uses overtly alarmist language in saying that Le Pen’s conviction represents “French democracy…being executed” (Source: Twitter)
The alarmist and antidemocratic language exhibited by Le Pen, Bardella, and their allies in France prompted a rare public statement from French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, who condemned attacks on the judiciary and its independence: “The threats made against the magistrates of the Paris Judicial Court are unacceptable in a democracy and worrying for the independence of the judicial authority.”
Other political leaders in the European far right were quick to respond to Le Pen’s conviction and stoke fear amongst their followers.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, called the decision a “violation of democratic norms,” claiming that “there is no hesitation at all to go beyond the framework of democracy during a political process.” The statement appears paradoxical to Russia’s own political framework, as the country is considered to be an authoritarian regime and profusely undemocratic.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has long been attacking his country’s own judiciary, and now seems to be influencing the United States’ democratic backsliding, tweeted “Je suis Marine!,” seemingly mimicking the popular “Je Suis Charlie” motto that became popular after twelve people were killed by Islamic extremists at the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Similarly, Miklós Szánthó, director general of the Hungarian Center for Fundamental Rights, called the decision “leftist lawfare” (the same rhetoric is used in the United States to fuel threats of violence against the judiciary).
Hungarian Miklós Szánthó calls the ruling against Le Pen “leftist lawfare,” invoking American language currently being used to incite hatred against the judiciary (Source: Twitter)
Santiago Abascal, president of the Spanish far-right party VOX, claiming that the decision was politically motivated, said “They will not succeed in silencing the voice of the French people.” João Antunes, an active member of the Portuguese far-right party Chega (Enough) and president of Chega Juventude (Chega Youth), referred to the democracies of EU member-states as “BULSHIT (sic).”
Daniel Haseloff, secretary general of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Thuringia State Association, said the “EU elites are resorting to ‘lawfare,’” parroting anti-democratic language used by Americans, and even purported that the judiciary is being weaponized in order to “restrict the right to vote.” Dries Van Langenhove, a former member of the Belgian Parliament and associated with the far-right separatist party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) who was convicted for inciting violence and “revell[ing] in Nazi ideas that cause much suffering,” claimed Le Pen’s conviction meant that Europe has “no democracy and no freedom,” and that “Europe’s enemies… [took] over a long time ago.”
Dries Van Langenhove uses Le Pen’s trial to claim that Europe no longer has “democracy” and “freedom.” Van Langenhove was himself convicted of inciting violence, including by glorifying Nazi ideals (Source: Telegram)
This antidemocratic messaging from Europe’s institutional figures was parroted by more extreme figures active in hate movements. Martin Sellner, de-facto leader of the Identitarian movement in Europe who infamously received a large donation from the Christchurch mosque shooter in 2018, said he “stand[s] in solidarity” with Le Pen. The Slovenian chapter of the white nationalist Generation Identity movement amped up the rhetoric, saying “Democracy is dead… We are in a total war.”
The Slovenian chapter of Generation Identity uses Le Pen’s conviction to justify telling its followers that “we are in a total war” now. (Source: Telegram)
British neo-Nazi Mark Collett, like some European politicians, used Le Pen’s case to claim that the judiciary was conducting “lawfare” against the far right in order to enact a supposedly sinister “judeo-democracy.” Collet didn’t expand on how Jews were involved in the European judiciary, however Jews are commonly scapegoated by far-right extremists as responsible for limiting freedom of speech. Australian neo-Nazi Joel Davis had a similar opinion, despite not being a supporter of Le Pen, ominously predicting that “What comes next is either a snowballing leftist tyranny or a revolution from the Right.”
The far-right attacks on the judiciary both from more establishment figures and the fringe represent an escalation of antidemocratic behavior from the far right. As judges in the U.S. and abroad enforce the rule of law, the far right is revealing its disdain for democratic institutions, judges, and the legal system in general, leading to personal attacks against the judges themselves. These attacks undermine democracies, separation of powers, and threaten the safety of judges themselves.
